Status of the anti-terrorist operation area may leave villages of Izyum district without millions hryvnias of land tax.
Deputies of the district council decided to ask the President of Petro Poroshenko to exclude Izyum from the ATO zone.
This status allows tenants to avoid paying land tax. Thus, rural district councils risk losing a substantial part of their budgets.
So far, farmers are showing civic responsibility and not taking advantage of this very profitable loophole. However, deputies fear when someone benefits from this possibility, the rest will follow the example. Farmers support the ATO exit idea being deprived of many legal rights in turn.
There are 17 village councils in Izyum district and all of them had already calculated how much can be lost due to staying in the ATO area.
According to the secretary of one village council Natalia Skrypnyk, last year the land tax added another 660,000 UAH to the local budget, a very serious sum for the village.
“With these funds, we have put parks in order, ennobled the cemetery and last summer repaired roads. Moreover, the tax funded the rural library, club and the council itself,” Natalya told us.
In the coming days the Izyum deputies will send a petition to the president.
